Melanoma

Researchers using the diseased cells of melanoma patients have developed a vaccine that they say dramatically reduces the recurrence of the deadliest form of skin cancer. The researchers used the vaccine on high-risk patients with advanced melanoma. Even after surgery, most patients develop additional tumors and die. Dr.

No one can question Dr. Donald Morton's tenacity. For 42 years, the medical director of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica has been working on a vaccine to prevent a relapse of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. He began developing his vaccine, Canvaxin, in the early 1960s. Then working at the National Cancer Institute, he saw a patient whose cancer "just went away," even though it had spread to her liver and lungs.

An abnormally high incidence of malignant melanoma has been found in children around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to California health officials. A 30-year government-sponsored cancer watch around the lab found eight cases of the deadly skin cancer among children born in the area and 12 cases among young residents born elsewhere, "a significantly elevated incidence" of the rare disease. That was far beyond the normal incidence of 1.

Whenever there’s an advance in the fight against cancer, there’s going to be some real excitement. And, if history is a judge, there’s going to be some disappointment, too. Treatments that look promising in the lab can fizzle in human trials. And even drugs that seem to work well in human studies may not end up helping many patients in the real world. A new study showing that the chemotherapy drug vemurafenib can prolong the lives of people with malignant melanoma — the especially aggressive and dangerous form of skin cancer that kills about 8,700 Americans each year — has rightfully lifted the spirits of doctors and patients alike.

An experimental anticancer drug that targets a specific genetic mutation benefits 80% of patients with metastatic melanoma, although in some cases the benefit was short-lived, researchers said Wednesday. The results came in a relatively small Phase II clinical trial, and testing will now proceed to a larger Phase III trial to gain approval for marketing the drug, called PLX4032. Researchers hope the drug might also provide benefits for some other types of tumors that share the same genetic defect.

This is about people who bought the notion that "life is a beach" but now realize how badly they got burned. It's about the fact that on these radiant spring days, as thousands of people sprawl on the sand catching rays, others are sitting in dermatologists' offices, waiting to be treated for skin cancer.

It is the rare moment in a scientist's career that is punctuated by a resounding "Aha!" The discovery, that crucial piece of the puzzle, the hoped-for results. In some cases it is the solution to a heretofore elusive mathematical problem. In others, it is unraveling the secrets of a stubborn protein.

Melanomas like those suffered by Sen. John McCain are more lethal than other types of skin cancers because the pigment-producing melanocytes that produce them are actually not skin cells at all. Though the basal cells and squamous cells that are responsible for the most common types of skin cancer are integral parts of the skin from the beginning, melanocytes are visitors -- nerve cells that are produced in the spinal column during infancy before migrating to the skin.

When Arno Tanney came to Hollywood from the Catskills in 1946 to further his acting career, he found something in Southern California that he'd never experienced before: nonstop sunshine. "I took up so much sun because it was free, you understand," said Tanney, 87, who lives in Santa Monica. "After 10 years in the Borscht Belt, I couldn't help myself. "Now," he said, with a sigh, "I'm paying the price." Tanney has basal cell carcinoma--skin cancer.

Melanoma rates have risen 50% among young women in the U.S. since 1980, a trend that may be related to an increase in the use of tanning salons and exposure to the sun's damaging rays, according to a report released Thursday. Among young men, melanoma rates have remained steady, the study found. The most lethal skin cancer, melanoma occurs in pigment-producing cells. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 62,480 new cases of melanoma and 8,420 deaths from it in the U.S. this year.